Norfolk County Court House in Dedham, Worcester Regional Airport, It’s About Time Clocks and Antiques store in Millers Falls, and a few other Bay State landmarks make cameos in the film. Eagle-eyed viewers will glimpse a Route 2A sign, glacial potholes and a distinct bridge in several of the scenes filmed in Franklin County last year. But the real stars, of course, are Robert Downey Jr., as a hotshot Chicago lawyer, and Academy Award winner Robert Duvall as his estranged father, a small town judge who is facing murder charges.

The courtroom scenes allow Downey to verbally joust at his acerbic and confrontational best. Yet, it is his quieter scenes with Duvall where the film demonstrates its heart.

Parental expectations, the complex relationship among siblings and shattered dreams are earnestly explored by director David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) from a script by “Gran Torino” scribe Nick Schenk and Bill Dubuque.

Carlinville, Indiana, is populated with flawed and all-too-human characters.

Downey’s Hank Palmer decries his father’s heavy-handed ways, though – as a prosecutor notes – Hank Palmer is little more than a “bully with a big bag of tricks.” For all of Hank Palmer’s finger-pointing at his father’s parental style, his relationship with his own young daughter leaves much to be desired.

Duvall’s demanding Judge Joseph Palmer is judgmental and unbending in and out of the courtroom. Most telling is that his three sons refer to him as “judge,” not dad. “The Judge” offers further evidence that the 83-year-old Duvall, who made his big screen debut in 1962’s legal drama “To Kill a Mockingbird,” remains one of his generation’s top actors.

Cast as Hank Palmer’s brothers are Vincent D’Onofrio (“Law & Order: Criminal Intent”), who plays a high school ball player denied a chance to make it to the majors. Jeremy Strong (“Zero Dark Thirty”) co-stars as the mentally challenged youngest brother. Neither brother can stand up to the cantankerous old man, prompting Hank Palmer to ask what line they were standing in when testicles were handed out.

“The Judge” falls short in the under utilization of Vera Farmiga (”Up in the Air,” “Bates Motel”) as the high school sweetheart Hank Palmer left behind. Her storyline seemed tacked on to a script of an otherwise nearly all-male production.

The world premiere of “The Judge” at the start of the Toronto festival will only serve to raise its profile when Oscar nominations are announced in January. It is a worthy contender for several Academy Awards.
_________